The Elections Commission is urging state justices to send a redistricting lawsuit to the lower courts first, arguing the drawing of new maps is complex and the Supreme Court isn’t meant to be a fact-finding body.
The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty has urged the justices to take original action in a suit asking them to draw new maps if the GOP-controlled Legislature and Dem Gov. Tony Evers are unable to reach a deal.
But the state Department of Justice, representing the commission, argued the Supreme Court has traditionally reserved original action for questions of law, “not complex fact-finding.”
Friday’s filing argues the Supreme Court is not meant to act like a trial court.
“But that is exactly what the redistricting original action contemplated by Petitioners would require — a factually and logistically complex proceeding, ending in an equally complex decision,” DOJ argued.
The brief also argues the court has never drawn its own map or selected new boundaries from proposals submitted by interested parties.
There are also two federal redistricting lawsuits pending.
Read the brief:
https://www.wispolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/210906Brief.pdf
